Information Sciences Institute

USC researchers receive $12.5M grant for craniofacial research data-sharing endeavor

Nearly half of all birth defects involve the face and skull and, for the most part, scientists remain unclear as to why most occur. To better serve families at risk for these conditions, scientists need a comprehensive and systematic understanding of how the faces of healthy children form and what goes wrong to cause common malformations, such as cleft lip and palate.

ISI Researcher Explores Origin of Spam and Other Online Intrusions

From a confidence trick originating in the late 19^th century, to sophisticated AI that can manipulate reality, recreating anyone's face or voice with almost pinpoint accuracyâ&euro"spam has come a long way.

ISI Researchers Tackle Lack of Diversity in Genetics Research

Genotyping, or determining which genetic variants an individual possesses, has paved the way for understanding how common variations in our DNA can be associated with health conditions like heart disease and diabetes. The hope is to determine your risk of developing a disease and, hopefully, prevent it.

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ISI Researcher's Machine Learning Method Unearths Early Signs of Alzheimer’s

January 28, 2019

Nearly 50 million people worldwide have Alzheimer’s disease or another form of dementia. While age is the greatest risk factor for developing the disease, researchers believe most Alzheimer’s cases occur as a result of complex interactions among genes and other factors. But those factors and the role they play are not known—yet.

In a new study, USC researchers used machine learning to identify potential blood-based markers of Alzheimer’s disease that could help with earlier diagnosis and lead to non-invasive ways of tracking the progress of the disease in patients.

The method was developed by USC computer science research assistant professor Greg Ver Steeg, a senior research lead at the USC Information Sciences Institute (ISI). Machine learning is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI) that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed.

“This type of analysis is a novel way of discovering patterns of data to identify key diagnostic markers of disease,” said team member Paul Thompson, the associate director of the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute and professor in the Keck School of Medicine at USC. “In a very large database of health measures, it helped us discover predictive features of Alzheimer’s disease that nobody suspected were there.”

The study, “Uncovering Biologically Coherent Peripheral Signatures of Health and Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease in the Aging Brain,” appeared in Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Nov. 28. The study authors are from the USC Mark and Mary Stevens Neuroimaging and Informatics Institute and the USC Information Sciences Institute.